Saw a really interesting exhibition yesterday in Nordico (the museum for Linz’s stuff). Actually the exhibition wasn’t great, but there were some good facts and figures around the place ranging from the city’s Nazi past to how they got capital of culture and what that has meant.
One room was about employment. Hitler and Goering built a massive factory here, one which brought masses of employment and development to Linz and probably made the place what it is today. Now it is VOEST Alpine and still employs loads of people. There were some thoughts from local people about employment and their working hours and one film has VOEST workers next to artists and cultural workers (whatever that may mean..). Now this was interesting – the two major industries in Linz shown together inviting comparison. The factory workers said that the company was very good not to encourage overtime or excessive working, they provide things like a swmming pool and little day trips and holidays for their workers and see the health of their workers as something to be invested in. I don’t know how true this all is, but it sounds good. All of the workers interviewed said that home and life were completely separate and they had no problem leaving work at work.
The artists and musicians on the other hand said they were happier earning less and stuggling for time, but they all felt that no one understood how hard they work, and that their hours were frequently more than 12 a day. There was also a common thread of being constantly ON and also not feeling their was enough time for the true vocation (be it painting or music or other) as they needed more than two or three jobs to make a living.
some quotes from the artists’ interviews:
‘it is all very uncertain, I go from one project to another without thinking about next year’s income.’
‘it all intrudes on my private life, or I don’t have one because it is all mixed together. I think I have unlimited working hours.’
‘it’s all too little to do with what I studied these days, but I need my day jobs to fund my lifestyle. To be honest sometimes it’s all a bit hard to manage.’
and from a Voest Dept. Manager:
‘those people who work many hours extra can be very useful, you can always give them an extra project or call them late, but overall they represent a problem to the system as a whole.’
(I’m showing this last bit to my husband..)
